10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Josh Reviews 10 Cloverfield Lane

I feel like 2008’s Cloverfield has been somewhat forgotten and/or dismissed in recent years, but I loved that film when it came out. Back in 2008 I wasn’t yet fed up with J.J. Abrams’ “mystery box” schtick and it was fun going into seeing that movie without really having any idea what the heck it was about. That was cool, and the movie didn’t disappoint. It was a tremendous big-screen experience, with the “found footage” device used to great effect to put the viewer right into the thick of the action. Subsequent viewings at home can’t live up to that original big-screen presentation, but I’ve watched Cloverfield a few times over the years, including just last month, and I think the film holds up well. The skill of screenwriter Drew Goddard (who also helped create Netflix’s Daredevil and wrote & directed the great The Cabin in the Woods) and director Matt Reeves (who directed the spectacular Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) created in Cloverfield a fun, thrilling, and gorgeous-to-look-at monster movie.

Cloverfield felt like a completely one-off thing, and so like everyone else I was stunned when news broke a few months ago that J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot production company was releasing a new film called 10 Cloverfield Lane. First of all, my cap is off to Mr. Abrams and co. for somehow managing to produce this movie entirely in secret. They only announced the film’s existence a few months before its release! I don’t know how they did that, in this day and age. And, of course, they once again decided to keep almost everything about the movie very secret. Trailers for 10 Cloverfield Lane didn’t tell much about the film’s story, nor did they reveal whether the film had any connection, other than the title, to 2008’s Cloverfield. Was this a sequel? A prequel? A totally new story?

Here is an example of Mr. Abrams’ secrecy-heavy approach to movie-making really worked for me. I was intrigued by the mystery around 10 Cloverfield Lane just as I had been with the original Cloverfield. I had felt burned by Mr. Abrams’ “mystery box” technique in the past, most especially by Star Trek Into Darkness, not only because of everyone involved with the film’s flat-out lying to audiences for months (claiming that Khan was not the villain), but that the film’s story was stupidly structured to keep the identity of Khan a secret until the final 30 minutes, thus defeating the whole idea of bringing back one of Star Trek’s greatest villains. (Why use Khan if for most of the movie you’re going to have him be pretending to be some other guy??) But … [continued]